6 questions I need answered after watching Westworld episode 7

Here are the things I NEED to know after the latest episode of Westworld, Trompe L’Oeil. If you want a more in-depth breakdown, make sure you read our Westworld season 1 episode 7 recap, but for the burning queries you’ll want answered in episode 8, read on. So, I know every week I state the obvious, that this feature will contain spoilers, but seriously, if you haven’t seen Westworld S1.07 yet, you really don’t want to read this because it was an amazing, spoilerific, happening of an episode and deserves to be watched spoiler-free. Go do that now and come back here.

1. Did Ford and Charlotte plan to get rid of Theresa together?

This episode sees the demise (aka, murder) of Park Director Theresa Cullen and while there’s loads of questions surrounding her death, the one I keep asking myself is: was she set up by the board’s representative Charlotte Hale? This is because when the pair talk about forcing Ford into retirement, Charlotte says there needs to be a “blood sacrifice”. At the time we obviously think she’s talking about the plan to get rid of the Father of all Hosts, but when Ford confronts Theresa in his secret lab, just before he tells Bernard to kill her, he repeats almost the exact same words. So, were Ford and Charlotte in on it together the whole time? Well, maybe not. “What you might be missing is there was a Host on the bed behind them when she said that — Hector.” Westworld showrunner, Lisa Joy, explained to EW: “Ford has access to that kind of stuff.” Of course he does! The sneaky bugger. He basically used that line to rub it in Theresa’s face that her plan had failed right before her lover kills her. Now that’s evil.

2. Is Clementine really ‘dead’?

One of the most harrowing yet powerful scenes in this episode is when Host Clementine (played by Angela Sarafyan) gets attacked by another Host as part of the board’s plan to prove the Hosts could be dangerous. Clementine’s supposed ability to hold a grudge means that she is sent to be decommissioned, but we’re so used to Hosts coming back from the dead, I have to wonder if this is the last we’ll see of Clementine? Showrunner Jonathan Nolan said: “It’s a little more complicated than that. They’re physically removing part of her personality. It’s like when the NSA has a hard drive they want to get rid of. They don’t just erase it, they drill holes in it. The mind of the Hosts are organized similar to a human mind, with that frontal lobe containing most of the code for her personality. So the person we know as Clementine is largely gone.” Sad times.

3. Why doesn’t Maeve freeze anymore?

Maeve’s been going through some changes lately. Mainly because she’s blackmailed a couple of Westworld body techs into upping her intelligence A LOT. One of the biggest changes you’ll have noticed in this episode is that she doesn’t freeze like the other Hosts anymore. When the behind-the-scenes teams want to come into an area of the park to do some maintenance, they automatically clear the guest using some other entertaining story line and freeze all the Hosts, which is exactly what they did when they came to collect Clementine. The thing is, she’s talking to Maeve at the time and when she stops talking, it takes Maeve a while to realise what’s happening. She manages to fake freeze just in time to avoid detection but why isn’t she freezing at all? I don’t think she asked Felix and Sylvester to remove that ability otherwise she wouldn’t have looked so surprised, so maybe it’s just that now her intelligence is at an all time high, she’s gone above and beyond the control of the Westworld workers completely. She no longer has to follow any order, she can choose.

4. If Bernard is a Host, who was his ‘wife’?

The most shocking revelation of the episode is that Head Programmer Bernard is actually a Host. I say shocking, but we knew that at least one person we thought was human would turn out to be a Host, and there were lots of theories flying around the internet that it was Bernard. Having said that, there was one thing which seemed to disprove the possibility and that was the video call Bernard had with his ‘wife’ (played by Firefly’s Gina Torres) in episode 3. So, who the hell is she then? Well, given the fact Ford can create a whole world of walking, talking, Hosts who are basically indistinguishable from humans, I’m thinking he can fake a skype call as well. Who knows, maybe it didn’t even really happen, Bernard’s just been programmed to think it did because it supports his backstory. When quizzed about this exact thing, actor Jeffrey Wright confirmed these suspicions.

5. And why did he get undressed before killing Theresa?

Another fairly minor thing which has definitely not been keeping me awake at night is: why does Bernard take off his tie and jacket before killing Theresa? It doesn’t seem like much, but I think it’s bothering me because it’s such a human thing to do and we just found out that Bernard isn’t human. Maybe that’s unfair, I mean, he’s been passing for a human for a long time so why wouldn’t he do human things? But the problem is that in this moment he is distinctly not human, he’s Ford’s puppet. We know Bernard, given any kind of choice, wouldn’t kill Theresa… so in his most ‘robot’ moment yet, why is he showing such a human concern for his jacket? The answer is that he’s not. “It was about meticulousness and efficiency and being physically unencumbered in his calculation on how he would do this deed.” Jeffrey Wright told EW: “Although he’s emotionally detached, we wanted to express a calculus in the way he operates.” And that’s how you write a great TV show.

6. Seriously, where is Elsie?

I know I asked this last week but it bears repeating because no way is she on holiday. When Bernard asks another programmer if he’s seen Elsie, not only does he say no, but he says “according to the system, she started her leave today”. Bullshit, did she. Not only does he not have to look it up, he just knows (suspicious!), but I think her boss might know if she’s booked holiday or not. This does give us a few more clues as to who attacked her at the end of episode 5 though, because that someone would have to access to the system to put in her fake holiday request. So, that narrows it down to... basically everyone in the show. Aren’t you glad I’m here?

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